All Chapters of The Cursed Alpha’s Daughter: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The reception at the House of the Divine Rite, the house of the females in the school was worse today. I hurriedly got my books out of the common room and fast walked all the way to the main building.I went to a Cleavemoon high. A private school that separated genders. The house of Divine Rite for the women and the House of Claw and Bite for the men.The women were trained to understand the privilege of continuing a lineage, a bloodline or heirloom. To be a conduct between the blessing of the Moon goddess and a family she's married into. They are taught rites and how to speak on occasions, speak at ceremonies, and offer the Moon Goddess pretty prayers wrapped in obedience.The men had it...more fun. Combat, weaponry, map reading, battlefield tactics, defence against the magic arts.Only a few girls—a lucky few—were deemed worthy of learning warcraft or scouting.Girls with strong wolves. Girls with strong names.Not girls like me. I kept my head down rushing to my first lesson.I g

I came back from school feeling pissed, exhausted, murderous even.My uniform stuck to my skin from sweat and it was stained with blood and dirt.My superficial injuries were already healing, but my ribs still felt like I could use a few more minutes.I on the other hand felt like getting a gun and marching up to Malcom and shooting him in between the eyes with it.I look at the stairs leading up and quake a little.I'm twelve steps in. Might as well be twelve trials of torment. My ribs were counting every one.I hear someone call me."Cinder."I flinch and then immediately straighten my back.It was Lady Marenia.My Godmother and the person in charge of me when Dad was too tired of holding my leash.I was too manhandled for a grueling lesson right now.Lady Marenia’s lessons came served with bitter tea and sugar-dusted warnings.I slouched onto the cushion. She poured tea like I hadn’t just been publicly humiliated twice in a day.“Sit straighter,” she said.I did so immediately and

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I whispered to no one. Boots scraped against my heels as I yanked them on.The sky was a bruised silver overhead. Dawn crept in slow and pale, not warm, not golden, just cold."But this destitute princess has got to do what she's gotta do."I crept through the castle like I belonged in its shadow.Silent and sharp-eyed. Every step felt heavier like the castle didn’t want me to leave.My breath ghosted the air as I pressed a hand to the cold stone wall, listening—counting the guards’ rotations by their boots. East wing. Four guards.Kitchen. Two.None near the old servant passage—not since it collapsed halfway in during the last renovation.Perfect.Jumping over the columns, I ducked under cobwebs. I ducked low, slipping behind the crumbling bookshelf and lifted the stone panel behind a tapestry.The abandoned trash chute.The crawlspace beyond was narrow—claustrophobic and clawed up from years of rats, rot, and neglect.Only Elio and I knew of this

"What is this I'm hearing about your brother being a thief from the lower quarters, Gio?" Elio inquired sourly.I touch my nose and let out an embarrassed chuckle.We reached the edge of the kingdom before noon.I stood beside Elio, silent. My disguise still half-intact—a soot-smeared face and a tunic I’d wrestled out of some merchant’s laundry. No longer “Gio,” and not quite “Cinder.” Just a guilty in-between thing trying to stay quiet for as long as possible.The crew were already looking at me like I'd betrayed them somehow. The Moon blessed barrier loomed ahead.It shimmered like liquid glass between two black stone obelisks, thin and rippling, distorting the world behind it like heat rising off from a scorching hot day. The divine wall, spun from the magic of old Lunas, tempered by blood, prayers, and the Moon Goddess herself. Its presence hummed through the air like a closed mouth ready to scream.Quinn unslung the velvet-wrapped staff from his back.It looked unassuming—ashw

Vasska mounted and turned his steed after a nod at Elio. He did so with the ease of someone used to being obeyed before he even gave the command.Typical.The vampire officials behind him fell in line without so much as a twitch. Crimson cloaks, black sashes, elegant and cold. Everything about them screamed control.Haha. Inviting.“Isolde,” Ezekiel hissed through clenched teeth, “you can stop now.” He reminded.She was still in her waist pain inducing pose.I laughed out loud this time.I inexplicably felt Isolde shooting me subtle eye daggers.I raised an infuriating brow then turned around. I was still thinking about the way Vasska’s eyes had scraped across my skin like glass—cool, unhurried, and vaguely amused.Like I was interesting in that degrading way you'd find a cat cute.Behind me, Isolde exhaled like someone had squeezed a perfume bottle. Her voice oozed faux sweetness.“Did you see the way he looked at me?”“Who?” I said, deadpan. “The horse?”She bared her teeth, "You